Detroit Free Press Columnist

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The Detroit Tigers have improved their chances of getting into the playoffs and winning the World Series by trading for Joakim Soria.

So let’s focus on that. Just for kicks, let’s think ahead to one potential playoff scenario against a team that probably will stand between the Tigers and the World Series.

Flash forward a few months. It is a dark, chilly night at Comerica Park. Fans are waving white towels above their heads, and the Tigers have a one-run lead against the Oakland A’s. The Tigers’ starting pitcher has kept the game close, and now it’s the late innings, the moment when Tigers fans have learned to grab for the Maalox.

Coco Crisp comes to the plate for Oakland. Now remember, Crisp went 7-for-18 with three walks and had a gaudy .455 on-base percentage while scoring four runs against the Tigers in the 2013 ALDS.

Tigers skipper Brad Ausmus goes to his bullpen and picks Soria. Of course, there is no guarantee that the Tigers will win, but under this scenario, the odds look better for the Tigers.

For his career, Crisp is hitting 2-for-10 against Soria, including four strikeouts. Crisp hasn’t had a hit against Soria since 2008.

In case you are wondering, Yoenis Cespedes is 0-for-2 against Soria; Josh Donaldson is 0-2; Jed Lowrie is 0-3; and Brandon Moss is hitless in one at bat.

Granted, those are small sample sizes. And there is no guarantee that the Tigers will even play the A’s in the playoffs. But if they do, and my gut says that they will, it’s yet another reason to like this trade.

It was a needed, justified, logical move.

By adding Soria, the Tigers addressed their biggest need and got somebody who could pitch in crunch time.

“It was important for us to get somebody who could pitch late in the game,” Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said today.

If there is a negative, it is that Soria has never pitched in the playoffs. But there are many other things to like about him.

First of all, he throws hard and rarely walks anybody. In 33 1/3 innings for the Texas Rangers this season, he had 42 strikeouts and four walks.

Wait a second. A guy who can come out of the bullpen, throw strikes and not walk anybody? That will totally wreck the drama that Tigers fans are used to.

“You want to have people out there who put up zeroes,” Dombrowski said, “that can put down shutdown innings and throw strikes on a consistent basis.”

If that was the criteria, Soria fits the bill perfectly.

He can pitch late in the game, whether that means he will work the seventh inning, eighth or ninth. Let’s just say that’s to be determined — as in, it will be determined by Joe Nathan’s performance over the next few months.

Second, by making this move, the Tigers have addressed another looming problem in the bullpen because Soria has a club option for next season.

“I think it’s a plus for us to know we can have Soria for next year,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t think that made the deal, per se, but it was a real plus.”

So if Nathan comes around and holds on to his job as a closer — Tigers fans will be doing back flips if this happens — then the Tigers have solidified the back of their bullpen for this year and next.

And if Nathan falls apart, then Soria can be the closer.

Soria is like a giant insurance policy.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the cost was steep.

The Tigers traded away Corey Knebel and Jake Thompson, a pair of big, hard-throwing pitchers. Knebel, who signed a $1.43-million bonus last summer, made his debut in Comerica Park in May. And Thompson represented the Tigers in the All-Star Futures Game.

But the Tigers had to make this move.

“It was a necessity,” Dombrowski said. “We needed to do something at the back end of our ’pen.”

Dombrowski hinted that he might not be done, either.

“We are open to getting better,” he said. “Our bullpen has been a situation that has been our major focus and, I guess, would continue to be our major focus.”

So they might add another arm, which is even better news.

There are certainly no guarantees that this will push the Tigers into the World Series. But they have a better shot today than they did a week ago.